At age 15, Tay Maxwell ’23 went on a ride-along with a driver who was working for his grandmother’s trucking company based in Statesville, N.C. Fully expecting to become a truck driver himself at the time, something happened that day that changed the course of Tay’s life.
They were pulled over by a state trooper.
Instead of being nervous, Tay was intrigued.
“He was inspecting the truck and telling me everything he was looking for,” he recalls. “I said to myself, ‘Wow, I kind of like this.’”
The state trooper gave Tay his card and said he could call if he ever had any questions about law enforcement. Two years later as a junior in high school, Tay gave the trooper a call and learned about the different career options in law enforcement from him.
Guilford Bound
Soon Tay was considering colleges. After talking with the state trooper, Tay soon met his local chief of police who was a graduate of Guilford’s criminal justice program, which pushed him to seriously consider Guilford.
“A lot of professors were retired law enforcement. We had the assistant district attorney for Greensboro. Having all these people is something you can't get at a bigger college. I know them by first name, and I have their phone numbers in case something comes up,” he says.
At first Tay was considering joining the highway patrol but is now preparing for a career in the Greensboro Police Department. Right now, he’s working as an intern in the Special Operations Division, which is the traffic safety unit. During his internship, he’ll have the chance to work in tandem with the canine special response team and crime scene investigations. After graduation in December 2023, Tay plans to enter the Police Academy, join the police force and one day become the chief of police.
He noted that Professor Bradley Stewart has been his go-to for criminal justice questions as he understands well the ins and outs of the field. At Guilford, Tay has been involved in the Campus Activities Board and working for the President’s Office directly for Guilford’s President Kyle Farmbry on projects and proposals such as the marketing for GC Rise, the school’s summer program for high-school students.
Paying it Forward
One of the biggest things Tay came to understand was that there are many career options for criminal justice majors, not just law enforcement, noting medical criminal justice and law school.
“Brad was telling me about law school and that I could try to do law school later in life because it works really well with criminal justice. My biggest advice is to get you know your professors here at Guilford whatever you major in, but preferably criminal justice. The professors are great and hands-on, and they can tell you anything that you want to know.”
He also had some broader college tips.
“The friends you make here could possibly become lifetime friends,” he says. “You have to get out and join different clubs. I didn’t do that at first. Now that I’m more out there with things like the Campus Activity Board, my college experience is so much different!”